Paying

Published by The National Herald, February 11, 2005

Paying for lay service

We all know that the only people who get paid for services rendered to our churches are clerics (priests and the Church hierarchy). The rest of the thousands of people who support the Church and make it function are all volunteers.

Naturally, a parish depends heavily on volunteers to do the myriad tasks which need to be done. After all, it would be oxymoronic to pay the members of Philoptochos to visit a sick person in a hospital.

If God is love and the Church is all about loving and giving, then it is the volunteers who hear the whisper of their conscience and freely offer their time and their resources in the service of the Church.

If this is the case, why then do we pay our priests, the people whose, theoretically at least, spiritual motivation for volunteering their services to the Church should be at a higher level than the average lay person.

The answer, of course, is that since priests devote their time to the service of the Church full time, and since they have family responsibilities, they need some source of income to support themselves and their families.

But who besides our priests shoulders the responsibilities, devotes endless time – but not exclusively – in service to our parish communities? Is it not the president of the parish council? Is he or she not the person elected to run the non-religious affairs of the communities? Why is he or she not paid something for his or her services to the community?

For three primary reasons, we think the time has come for them to also be paid for their services:

First, so that we provide them with additional incentive to do the best job possible; second, so that not only wealthy individuals can serve (given the time constraints); and third, so that competition among those running for the job can increase, thereby improving the quality and caliber of the lay leadership attracted.

We know that many communities face financial difficulties. We know that the Archdiocese deficit is approaching disturbing levels, so we do not propose to burden our parishes even more by offering huge salaries to parish presidents.

A standard ought to be found, however, perhaps half the salary of priests or a percentage based on the priest’s salary. Perhaps then we would have the right to ask, and expect, more of the parish presidents, and of the parishes too. Human nature being what it is, perhaps they will have incentive to bring in additional funds surpassing their presidential salary many times over.



Volume 7 Number 7 - Tuesday, February 15th, 2005	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY